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RENDERED: 2013 BMW X1M

The rendering below is of the all new 2013 BMW X1M, which hasn’t quite left the rumormill yet, but you can file it under the “very probable” category, considering the popularity of the regular BMW X1 in Europe.

The report was passed along by a BMW insider with a known history of getting it right, and considering that the X1 is BMW’s best-selling crossover in Europe, I believe it. It’s already been delayed until at least 2013 in the United States of America due to the fact that BMW can’t build them fast enough. The speed that they build them at is the speed at which they sell them.

There’s one area where it get’s really interesting – what engine will the BMW X1M use??

This, according to reports from the BMW insider, will be a new BMW TwinPower turbocharged 4-cylinder engine, good for over 340 horsepower, and the X1 prototype which can and will become the new X1M is the test bed for the new motor. The X1M is expected to blaze the trail for the 340-horsepower TwinPower twin-scroll turbo 4 to find its way into the BMW M2, the successor to BMW’s 1M coupe. This is similar to how the twin-turbo V8 inside BMW’s X5M and X6M, which debuted in 2010, have paved the way for the groundbreaking new M5 and M6, and their identical twin-turbo V8 engines.

This engine will be far lighter than the 6-cylinder twin turbo engines that are in use under numerous BMWs at the moment, including the one that’s powering the BMW 1M coupe, yet this being BMW, expect the TwinPower 4 to remain extremely smooth, powerful, and aurally pleasing as well. Despite the lack of cylinders, the new TwinPower 4 will be more powerful than the turbocharged 6 that will be inside the new BMW 235i (the successor to the 135i).

Previously the new X1M prototype had been tested with a TwinPower inline 6 turbo engine, similar to the one found in the 1M coupe, but new emissions regulations in certain countries are already threatening the life of the I6, and BMW’s new goal with the TwinPower 4 is for an engine that is just as powerful, lower in emissions, and is lighter in weight than the Inline 6.

Don’t be surprised if BMW finds ways for variations of this new engine to end up inside other, larger models too, such as variants of the 3-series, 5-series, and the X3 Sports Activity Vehicle.